A week Choc-a-Block with records as we saw Hyderabad’s lowest score in the League, another Andre Russell onslaught, a dream debut for Alzarri Joseph, Dhoni’s highest and lowest points on one night, Pollard’s mojo returning and many more in top highlights from Week 3.

Soon, very soon the League is going to have a ‘WI’ added in it somewhere! In the week gone by what stood out most of all was the Caribbean stars rising to the fore to not only change match outcomes, but to rewrite records as well. From Andre Russell’s heroic performances to Alzarri Joseph’s stellar debut and Kieron Pollard’s match-winning knock – this season no doubt has been a Calypso swirl.

While the table has really started taking shape in Week 3, right at the very bottom, Bangalore are without a win and in danger of being the first team eliminated while Rajasthan also need to start putting points together. At the very top, Chennai look certainties for a place in the playoffs while it’s tight among the five franchises below them. Week 4 will be crucial for the best of the rest to step up.

THE KOHLI-ABD SHOW AGAINST KOLKATA
Bangalore, who came into this game with 4 successive losses were in desperate need of a win. The Kohli-Abd show, which didn’t take off yet in the tournament earlier finally came to life. Batting first, Virat Kohli looked in full flow right from the start. In the first wicket partnership of 64, Kohli had already scored 38(23). After the first wicket fell in the 8th over, AB de Villiers joined Kohli as the duo started building a partnership again. Their 50 partnership took 34 balls as Kohli completed his 50 of just 31 balls. The onslaught from the duo came in the 14th over as ABD slammed Russell for 2 sixes. Kohli too joined the party as the duo smashed another 18 runs in the 15th over. The score had reached 142-1 by then. They scored 11 from the 16th over and added another 19 from the 17th over, thus completing their century partnership in just 54 balls.

Kohli perished in the 18th over to Kuldeep Yadav and ABD perished to Sunil Narine in the 19th over. However, by that time, the damage was already done. Virat managed to score 84(49) with 9 fours and 2 Sixes, while AB de Villiers scored 63(32) with 5 fours and 4 sixes.

THE ANDRE RUSSELL ONSLAUGHT
After a high scoring first innings, Andre Russell pulled-off an incredible win as his 48(13) helped Kolkata chase a daunting target of 206 in just 19.1 overs making it the match of the season so far. Coming in to bat at 139-4 in 16 overs and needing 66 of the last 4 overs, Russell, as usual, took just 4 balls to get his eye in and smashed 47 of his next 9 deliveries to script an incredible win.

His last 9 deliveries looked similar to an EA Sports Cricket 07 game scorecard as he smashed 6, 6 6, 1, 6, 6, 6, 4, 6. This by far has been the performance of the season so far.

KAGISO RABADA RATTLES BANGALORE
Ohh !! Poor Bangalore as after facing an onslaught from Andre Russell, they were rattled by some smart bowling of Kagiso Rabada. The premier pacer for the Delhi Capitals was instrumental in taking timely important wickets as he never let RCB run-off with the batting.

Batting first, Bangalore were doing good until the 5th over. However, Kagiso Rabada, who was brought in the sixth over got rid of the dangerous ABD with a slower cutter. As Kohli just looked like taking the game away from Delhi in the 18th over, Rabada got the big fish with another slower cutter. He didn’t stop there as he got 2 more important wickets of Akshdeep Nath and Pawan Negi to rock back Bangalore.

In the end, they only managed to score 149-8 in 20 overs as Kagiso Rabada ended his fantastic spell on 4-0-21-4. Delhi chased the target comfortably with one over to spare.

DREAM DEBUT FOR ALZARRI JOSEPH
Coming into the match for Lasith Malinga, who was on national duty in Sri Lanka, it was a night to remember for the young, Alzarri Joseph as he became the first player to take a 6-fer on debut.

Batting first on a tricky batting surface, Mumbai could manage only 136 on account of Keiron Pollard’s 46 runs of 26 deliveries. Hyderabad, who have been heavily riding on the Warner-Bairstow show started decently with an opening partnership of 33 in 4 overs. However, Bairstow’s wicket just opened up the game as Joseph on only his first ball got rid of the consistent, David Warner. He didn’t stop there as he got rid of Vijay Shankar in the very next over with a skidder.

Brought back in his second spell with Hyderabad needing 53 of last 5 overs, Joseph got 4 more wickets as he derailed Hyderabad’s lower order to end their score for 96; their lowest ever total in League history.

VIRAT KOHLI NOTCHES UP ANOTHER UNENVIABLE RECORD AFTER BECOMING THE ALL-TIME LEADING RUN SCORER IN LEAGUE HISTORY

Kohli, the all-time leading run-scorer in the League and only the 2nd Indian batsman to score 8000 T20 runs, is now part of most League defeats in history. No other player has featured in more defeats in the League than Kohli’s 86.

On Friday, when Virat Kohli should have been celebrating a fine 49-ball 84 and his maiden fifth in the 2019 League, he was left to rue some bad choices on the field and a poor performance by his bowlers under pressure from Andre Russell when Kolkata needed 66 runs off the last 4 overs of their 206-run chase against Bangalore.

Virat Kohli, who has 5110 runs from 168 matches, has lost 86 matches in the tournament’s 12-year history. These are staggering numbers and most experts will struggle to explain why one of the leading stars has failed so miserably as a captain.

DEEPAK CHAHAR SCRIPTS LEAGUE RECORD WITH INCREDIBLE SHOW AGAINST KOLKATA

Chennai’s underrated medium-pacer Deepak Chahar was at his best during the match against Kolkata at the MA Chaidambaran Stadium in Chennai returning with outstanding figures of 3/20 in four overs. He played a pivotal role in restricting high-flying Kolkata to just 108/9 in 20 overs. During the course of his brilliant spell, Chahar also managed to set a new bowling record in the cash-rich league.

Chahar now holds the record for most dot deliveries bowled by a bowler in a League innings. Against Kolkata, Chahar bowled 20 dots in four overs, which means he was taken for runs on just four deliveries. Chahar broke former India cricketer Ashish Nehra’s record, who had bowled 19 dots against Punjab in the 2009 edition of the league.

POLLARD FINDS HIS MOJO AHEAD OF CWC 2019

On a day that saw Rohit Sharma sit out his first ever League match, Siddhesh Lad finally make a debut after a 5 year wait and KL Rahul score his maiden 100, a Kieron Pollard masterclass took Mumbai over the line in a last ball thriller against Punjab to go 3rd in the Points Table. This was the highest ever successful run chase at home for Mumbai

Pollard slammed a belligerent 31-ball 83 to power Mumbai’s successful chase of 198 while captaining the side in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma. Pollard’s effort almost single-handedly took Mumbai to victory.

DHONI FINED AFTER FIERCE ON-FIELD ARGUMENT WITH UMPIRES IN TENSE RUN CHASE

Mahendra Singh Dhoni notched his 100th win as a captain in the League on Thursday after helping Chennai pull off a thrilling chase amid dramatic scenes in the final over against Rajasthan. Dhoni top-scored with 58 off 43 deliveries as Chennai chased down their target of 152 with number eight Mitchell Santner hitting a last-ball six in Jaipur. The visitors won by four wickets. But the emotionally-charged encounter witnessed an uncharastic Dhoni losing his cool as he argued an umpiring call in the 20th over after storming on to the field. He was fined 50 per cent of his match fee after his outburst against the umpires.

BEN STOKES TAKES ONE OF THE GREATEST EVER CATCHES

The England all-rounder showed his athletic abilities by taking one of the greatest ever catches to send Kedar Jadhav back during Rajasthan’s game versus Chennai at Jaipur. Jadhav hit the fifth ball of the sixth over, bowled by Jofra Archer, over point. Or was it? Stokes jumped vertically, timing it to perfection, and landed with the ball firmly in his grasp.

The dismissal left Jadhav stunned as Stokes ran around the ground in jubilation after completing the catch. The official League handle uploaded the video on social media and their post read: “Ben Stokes would be ‘Stoked’ by THAT catch tonight. Unbelievable stuff here from Stokes.”

GANGULY IN SPOTLIGHT AS KOLKATA HOST DELHI AT EDEN GARDENS

Sourav Ganguly came as a visitor to his home ground Eden Gardens when his team Delhi took on Kolkata. The CAB president is currently acting as adviser for Delhi. The equation has drawn charges of conflict-of-interest against the former India captain with a few insiders at the state board claiming that its president may have a say in the Eden wicket. The BCCI Ombudsman DK Jain had received three complaints that Sourav Ganguly will be “conflicted” if he performs his role as Delhi’s advisor at the Eden Gardens on 12th April.

Three West Bengal based cricket fans, Bhaswati Santua, Ranjit Seal and Abhijeet Mukherjee in separate communications to Justice (Retd) DK Jain had questioned Ganguly’s role as an advisor of Delhi when he is still the president of CAB.

Kolkata were eventually well beaten as Ganguly, who in the past has held various roles with the Kolkata franchise including being the captain, sat in the Delhi dugout and masterminded the downfall. However, despite a shift in loyalty for Sourav Ganguly, Kolkata owner Shah Rukh Khan posted a special message for his team’s former captain on Twitter, saying that the only positive in Kolkata’s loss was that “our Dada was at Eden on the winning side”.